Electrical connectors are used in a wide variety of applications to make various electrical connections between different circuits or electrical components. Most connectors include a housing made of insulating material such as plastic or the like, and the housing mounts a plurality of terminals. The terminals are arranged in a particular pattern, and conductors from different circuits are connected to respective different ones of the terminals. The pattern of terminals in the housing correspond, for example, to a plurality of mating terminals of a second or complementary connector or electrical component. In some connectors, the conductors are separately terminated to the individual terminals, and in other connectors the conductors are terminated through mass termination methods.
One type of electrical connector is an insulation displacement type connector for terminating a plurality of insulated conductors of a multi-conductor cable. Such a connector includes a plurality of terminals having insulation-displacement sections at one end for piercing through the insulation of the conductors to establish electrical connection or conductivity with respective conductive cores of the conductors.
One type of insulation displacement electrical connectors involves termination of high density ribbon cables which are generally flat, with a plurality of conductors in a plane surrounded by insulating material and also joined by insulating web portions of the flat ribbon cable. The insulation displacement sections of the terminals cut through the insulating mass of the ribbon cables to establish conductivity with the planar array of conductors. Such ribbon connectors have been designed for mass terminating extremely high density ribbon cables, with the conductors of the cables spaced as close as on the order of 0.025 inch.
One of the problems with high density electrical connectors, such as connectors for mass terminating ribbon cables, is to maintain the terminals, particularly the insulation displacement sections of the terminals, in proper alignment prior to termination. The terminals most often are stamped and formed from thin sheet metal material and can be bent or deformed during fabrication, handling or assembly processes. During the termination processes, even one misaligned terminal can cause the entire electrical connector assembly to become damaged or defective.
Heretofore, a variety of approaches have been made to ensure proper alignment of the tiny terminals in electrical connectors, particularly high density electrical connectors, including ribbon cable connectors as described above. Many alignment approaches involve the use of side walls, abutting shoulders, ramped surfaces and the like, molded integrally with the connector housing, usually about the terminal-receiving passages in the housing, to bias the terminals into proper aligned positions as the terminals are assembled or inserted into the housing passages. These approaches have proven effective in a variety of applications, but new alignment concepts have become necessary in extremely high density connectors, such as in terminating conductors which have a pitch or center-line spacing as small as 0.025 inch. Using such alignment means as passage side walls, abutting shoulders, ramped surfaces and the like of the prior art, are either inappropriate or make the manufacture of the connector extremely complicated when used with such closely spaced conductors and their respective terminals. Such means usually are provided in the housing outside the bounds or peripheral dimensions of the terminals. When the terminals are spaced extremely close to each other to accommodate the high density conductors, there simply is insufficient wall space between the terminal passageways to economically provide such alignment means.
This invention is directed to solving these problems by providing an extremely simple but effective system for aligning terminals in a high density electrical connector.